Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

., '" '" '" Q. ~ w Z III , I I III .'11 ~amJ· ~II_ W ..J U > U "America's No. 1 weekly motorcycle newspaper. You'll always see it FIRST THAT TIME OF YEAR It has come to that time of year again when the District 37 committee shows its true colors. First of all, we have the introduction of the new number plates again in the desert. This year they finally came up with a tremendous idea of colors to denote classes, etc. Now, next year they want to mess things up again. Why can't they leave a good thing alone??!! I realize that we'll have a new division, but why can't they show this new division in red and white and use an "x" as used for the present lightweight division? Secondly, we have previously written to the committee on two separate occasions abou t things that we were very unhappy about. Both times we were told that letters just don't get it, that if we wanted to be heard, an appearance in person was the only way we could be assured of· being heard. Even then they might not do anything about the complaint. I'd call this anything but the democratic way. we come Charles Clayton Sharon Clayton Tom Culp John Bethea David Swift e,,,"",,"O M,,,g,, Rh"" e,,,",,,,,oo A.', M"'. Tubffi Sm'" Production Manager Ed Drechsler Production Assistant Phil Stranske Advertising Assistant .. Barbara Richard Bookkeeper Dorothea Lang Bookkeeper Ass't Eleanor Duke Cycle News East, Dixie Cycle News, and National Advertising information: Tom Culp, National Advertising Director. ¥ Cycle News (West), P.O. Box 498, Long '",h, e.1 ""'"', "'-7433 - LA "'"L 63"'''. TELEX NO. 673-474 Subscription: One year 2nd class mail 2 years 2nd class mail, '" 3l Published weekly except the first and last week of the calendar year by Cycle News, Inc., Post Office Box 498, Long Beach, California, also publishers of Cycle News East, and Dixie Cycle News. 8«ood el.. P,""", ",id " Loo, Beach, Calif. Editorial stories, cartoons, photos, etc. are welcome. Addressed, ,,' . _ stamped envelope assures return of editorial matter. Reprinting in whole or . .$9.00 - in part only by permission of the . $15.00 publishers. Advertising rates and IVIIL.... Single copy price. . . . . $.30 upon request. See S.R.D.S. (.~J)~~:L:a:b~T:e:~~n:~:ia:n~.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.~L:a:rr:y~G:r:o:ves~~:3~Y:ea:r:s:2:n:d~c:la:s:s:m:a:i:I~~~~':$~18~~:O~:C:i:ro:u:l:at:i:o:n~i:n:fu:r:m:a:t:i:o:n~w~il:l~b:e~s:~:t: in Cycle News!" Next Publisher Business Manager General Manager Managing Edi~or Assistant Editor to our at least a lO-vote difference the opposite way, or voting for the open Sunday. You also made an asinjne statemen t saying a club should be allowed to have a point run next year because they had a good run this year. Are you implying that if that same club had held a bad run, they should lose their run this year? Who's to judge good and bad, anyway? Listen to some of the riders after any race. Some of them loved it and some of them thought it was terrible. Since you seem to find fault with any decisions made by the commi ttees in the District, why did you decline the nomination for an office? If I were as unhappy as you seem to be about everything happening, 1 would think an ideal way to bring about changes would be to get involved. That. however, is Besides liking the Hodaka, I cannot afford all of these other bikes at present. GARY B. CHAITERS Boron, Calif. "WRONG SHOP Regarding your article and race results on the Team Race at Oak Creek (Oct. 24) The Bike Shop Anaheim, was the third place finisher; not The Bike Shop El Monte. The Bike Shop EI Monte to my knowledge was not in participation at Oak Creek this past Sunday. The Bike Shop team, which was a last minute effort, was led by Jim Hoover (250 CZ) the other Expert, Martin Richmond (400 CZ) and two Juniors Terry Trachy and Ed Duncan, both on 400's. GARY W. MICKLES Anaheim, Calif. "open Sundays" next year. What a lame, lame excuse the district uses to whitewash the fact that someone, such as anyone of the independent profit making racing associations or some ·other such organization, must have put the pressure on to get those Sundays opened again. I would think it would have been quite obvious to the district committee that the desert riders like racing every Sunday. There has never been less than 325 riders out on anyone Sunday in 1971, and usually quite a few more. No other group except the desert riders should have the decision as to whether they do or don't want to race every week of the year except Easter, Christmas and New Years. Fourthly, we find seven clubs that were penalized for late results. Some of them truly deserved it, but a few other clubs with the same problems came up with weak excuses and were excused. The sad tuing about this is that if you had someone at the meeting who could stomp his foot hard enough your club was cleared of charges. But other clubs, such as ours, were "nit picked" into oblivion because they were a "border line" case and had no one there to fight for their rights. Surely there could have been a better solution for this situation. I'm not kidding myself. 1 realize that any form of complaint at this date falls on deaf ears. But I think it is a dirty shame that ronning' District 37 has become a political thing instead of serious business meant to be carried on with wisdom and diplomacy as well as democratically. We have the largest racing membership of any district. We should also therefore have the coolest governing body, but we don't. If enough racers would rise up and force a change or two we possibly could again get the District 37 committee to rule for the members and by the will of the majority of the members. It will only happen, however, if others, like myself, raise their vo~es too. JOYCE MAY Invaders M.C. Barstow, Calif. AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. R. SCHNEIDERS: You have got to be the world's worst reporter. I would assume the first rule of being a good reporter is to get your facts straights. I attended the District 37 Sports Committee meeting involving the clubs that were late in their results losing next year's point run. There was no roll call vote on this issue, only a decisive show of hands. A vast majority of the club's representativ.es felt this rule should be. upheld. The only roll call vote that night was concerning the open Sunday and only because when the officers counted the hands there was a difference of only two votes. After dae MIl ... aU .&here was VOICES OF THE WEST obviously not your game. You would rather sit back and snivel (unfortunately in print) than do something worthwhile. If you can't print the facts and only the facts then you should either hang up reporting or become the editor, and r think the former would be the best solution. A VIS McCARTHY Thousand Oaks, Calif. RESPONSIVE LETTER To answer the letter from Bill Cappel, published in the November 2nd issue. In some instances it is necessary. to minimize the length of motos, due to varied weather conditions the daylight hours available are unpredictable. It is realized that this condition is somewhat of a handicap to riders however, it's a plague all race promoters or sponsors are burde!,ed wi~h during the winter months of the year. Cutting motos short at Indian Dunes Park is not due to the amount of entries, unlike smaller course the park will accommodate a vast amount of riders per moto. As is announced at each rider's meeting prior to the race (if you attend them) the last set of motos may be lap scheduled according to available daylight hours. At no time is the first set of motos cut short. The average Junior rider completes seven to eight laps per 20 minute mota on the two mile course, where it's determined necessary to minimize the second moto the rider generally completes five to six laps. At no time are motos minimized to a te'n minute period. There has been no recent rate increase at Indian Dunes, mail entries (good "Up to 24 hours pri'or to event) has always been $5 and post entry $8. Additionally, all entry fees include free park entrance, is racing is costing- you $I per lap (as you indicated) "dial it on". JOHNWATKmS A.C.E. NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY... Just a ditto to Wes Anderson Sr.'s letter. . . The Shamrocks also had me finis/ling on a Harley-Davidson. I also ride a Hodaka Ace 100 but not out of a shop. Maybe I shouldn't gripe too much, Cycle News had me finishing recently on :i' S urokil FREE PARK-ING My wife and I are interested in opening a motorcycle park near Phoenix, Ariz. as tbere is no such place where cyclists can ride freely. Unfortunately we do not know how to go about it. We hope that you will be able to give us some information on what is necessary, Le. insurance,' kinds of riding areas, etc. As an avid reader of your newspaper I know you will be able to help us. THOMAS P. FOX Downington, Pa. What you need is a copy of the MIC book "Motorcycle Park Planning and Management" which is available on request to Motorcycle Industry Council, 1001 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C. 20036 ... Ed. NO DISASTER I have read your article "Desert Ordeal" in the Nov. 2, 1971 issue of Cycle News. What a study in irresponsible journalism! It is hard to believe a publication of its stature would print such false and misleading statements without contacting officials of Baja Racing Association. You have the phone number and address. It is almost beyond belief and borders on libel. No member of Baja Racing Assn. nor the Palm Springs Dune Buggy Assn., which handled the race north of the border and furnished American check and radio personnel to back up our own Mexican personnel in Baja, ever told anyone we had more entries than we did. In fact, at the drawing for starting positions in Palm Springs on Sept. 1 I th, attended by most of the entrants, we told them exactly how many we had and offered to refund their entry fees. Many expressed their belief that this international race has a great future and said they wanted to run. So we acceded to their wishes and decided to go ahead with the event even though we knew we would lose money. One paid his entry . fee that night. However, two later called and withdrew and we refunded their entry fees. N ow as to personnel rescue, I quote from the paper I read at the drivers meeting concerning that portion of the race south of the border. "If you break, don't leave the course. Get a ride to the 'next check if you can. If not, report your name and location to the next t¥er. -We wilI~fly -the ·eo..ne·in· a white Stinson. If you need help. hold both arms up. If not wave us to go. We have to reach Colonia Gurerro before dark." It is illegal to fly a single engine plane in iV)exico after dark, and we reached there just at sunset. The racers were also advised to carry water and matches. Why didn't the two unfortunates send word of their whereabou ts as instructed? We had people on standby. and would have arranged rescue by radio even after 10 p.m. when Larry Roeseler, age 14 reached the overnight check. In the meantime two racers reported to us that the Suzuki of John Davis had reached Mikes Sky Ranch. Mr. Davis report on the part of the course he rode being poorly marked is at odds with the comments of several racers who made a point of telling us it was well marked. There was a section further on, though, where some of the markers had been removed that did give some trouble. One racer reported seeing a cow eating one of our Webco arrows. The favorable comments of Armond Caprio are typical of those of most of the racers. How did you eve~ happen to_ print them? Kind of a "throw the poor dog a bone" gesture? The remarks of Dean Goldsmith are not entirely accurate.' Two BRA officials did land at check two but had no card table. Their purpose was to see if all was well with the check personnel sent by PSDBA. It was, so they left. Since there are no airport lights at Colonia Guerrero, they had to reach there before dark. Surely you would not expect check point personnel to exercise technical and safety authority if a driver sees fit to remove his helmet along the route. You spoke of the Mint and NORRA events. Does NORRA provide any form of personnel rescue in tueir Baja races? Not to my knowledge. In any event, what have you accomplished by running a cover story of 34 column inches of the incident when you devoted less than six inches to pre·race information.and race results? You didn't even see fit to list the race in your "Calendar" of coming events. This is a policy typical of metropolitan papers but hardly to be expected of Cycle News. I hope you will see fit to correct some of the misinforma tion you prin ted and undo some of the damage, although r realize it will be embarrassing. You owe it to your readers. BILL MARTIN Baja Racing Association WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM As a contestant in the Carriega which you so wrongfully called a disaster I would like to make the following comment. I was told that there was only 20 to 25 entries not 50 to 60. The plane coverage was more than adequate as we had the coverage during the daylight hours including the helicopter. I was the one who did not wear a helmet but had one in the vehicle and it was inspected going through tech inspection. Don't think you should force anyone .to wear one an ymoTe than the' Federal Government can force everyone to buckle their safety belts and shoulder straps to drive a car. I have never seen a course that NORRA is marked or had a followup truck. In my opinion, this is the best and only true off-road race in Baja today with only about 12 miles of pavement out of -50. The roughness of the course is evidence that no bikc;s finished (I carried the last one that last fifty miles strapped to my rollbar) and only one buggy. Speakillg for all the four-wheel drive entries that tl:tis was one of the most enjoyable raus. we have participated in and that we will all be back next year. STEVEN MIZEL Pres.. Novato Toyota Inc. .. ~ .l· .. t' ,i; ':J;oH JC:Ll ~H .Novato; Calif.

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